Prior art tape data storage devices write 8 separate physical tracks in parallel as a tape data storage medium is drawn past a write head. Eight separate write heads are simultaneously used for writing data, and 8 read heads are simultaneously used for reading back data stored on the tape data storage medium.
Referring to FIG. 1 herein, there is illustrated schematically a prior art arrangement for writing 8 physical tracks of data simultaneously in parallel, and for reading 8 physical tracks of data simultaneously in parallel from a linear tape data storage medium.
The prior art read/write arrangement comprises a host computer 100 which supplies data to a tape read/write head 101 via a write channel, and which receives data read back from the tape head via a read channel; an interface component 102 for interfacing with the host computer, the interface component implemented as an integrated circuit chip comprising an SCSI protocol engine, a burst buffer, and a burst manager component; a formatter component 103, the formatter component comprising a logical formatter 104 and a physical formatter 105; and a main buffer memory 106 for temporarily storing blocks of data to the tape read/write head; a signal processing component 107 which is downstream of the formatter component in the write channel; and a pre-amplifier component 108 which amplifies signals prior to writing onto a tape data storage medium via the tape write head 101, and which processes signals read from the read head 101 in the other direction, as they are read back from the tape, before they are input into the formatter.
Referring to FIG. 2 herein, there is illustrated schematically in plan view an array of 8 read/write elements arranged in a read/write head, along with 8 physical data tracks recorded on an elongate linear tape data storage medium. The read/write elements are capable of being electronically converted to either read data from a physical data track, or write data to a physical data track. Each read/write element comprises a read head and a write head, and depending upon the direction of the tape and whether a read or write operation is being carried out, the read part of the read/write element or the write part of the read/write element is active, whilst the remaining part of the read/write element is de-activated. Therefore, each read/write element is capable of being electronically controlled to perform either a read operation or a write operation. The tape data storage medium can move in either of a first direction or a second direction relative to the read/write elements, as shown by the arrowhead in the figure. When writing data in a first direction A, the tape moves in the first direction A relative to the read/write head, and data is written by a first plurality of write elements in a first column 200 and the written data is immediately re-read by a first plurality of the read elements in a second column 201, which follow the write elements.
When writing in a second direction B, the first row of write elements 200 can be electronically converted to read components, and the second column 201 of read components are electronically configured to be write components. In this case, writing of data is performed by the second column of write components and re-reading of the written data is performed by the first column 200 of read components.
To improve the performance of the prior art devices, it is desirable to improve the read and write speed from a read/write head onto a tape data storage medium.
There is the issue of how to increase the data transfer rate for writing to and reading from a tape data storage medium for product. Since the prior art devices have a tape speed past the read/write heads of over 4 meters per second, increasing the tape speed any further in order to increase the data transfer rate is technically difficult.